Family-- the New "F" Word?

"Family" is not a rating, either for films or TV. Those would be "G" or "PG". But the stamp, like those ratings, is often the kiss of death to creativity. The market is lucrative-- it has to be. Someone has to grind out stuff for kids, which is what the "family" and "family-friendly" ratings have come to mean. Nowadays the word has become a synonym for mediocre, and any schlock seems good enough to fill the "family" dustbin, requiring as it does, an endless supply of "kid-friendly" media for consumption, from artless cartoons to mindless "teen" shows, all suitably sanitized to brainwash the insatiable masses.

Its producers, however, hold it in palpable contempt. They make no secret of their attempt to make the youngest viewers addicts of media, and thus profitable consumers. Creative souls avoid "family" shows like the plague, and those who, through some accident, are forced to make them, inject into the shows, in countless ways, their postmodern sneers. Everyone knows the giant brand names of the super studios are behind them: Disney, Nick, FOX Kids, WB Kids, PBS, and everyone knows they have bigger fish to fry. Kids' shows, therefore, are more about indoctrination, from ABC's "No kind of family" to the little purple triangles wittily hidden in numerous Cartoon Network shows, than creativity. It was not always so, one could note. But need it be now? is a more current question.

As long as "Family" is one division at media companies and studios who really want to be about something very different, or one sort of offering on cable networks whose other programming would in no way prove suitable for that audience, there is no hope for TV. Some have suggested boycotting certain studios or networks, and certainly to vote for something with one's wallet means, in a sense, voting against something else. Some, like this reviewer, opt to take back the cable box and simply watch shows on DVD. But the cable company knows that when they make me a good offer with the channels I want I'll sign up again, so they're not worried.

All I can say is that someone has to work in this area. Someone's calling is to be here. Someone's calling is to make great TV. Someone's calling is to make family TV that's not schlocky, not mediocre, that has some sort of moral (if it does) beyond "show up for a family dinner". Look at all the creative shows that once found their way onto Cartoon Network. Look at how Ted Turner ran that network at a loss until enough people demanded cable companies carry it. Look at what a great success it was! Look at how sad it is that Adult Swim has become such a lot of rubbish. Can you really not make a cartoon without it being all blasphemy and sex? Must everything be ironic? Wasn't there once a time when you wanted to change the world and make it better? Wouldn't you once have given anything to work in cartoons or comics? Weren't you once straining at the bit to use your gift?

I'm merely asking. A song I once wrote has the line, "Is this your idea of a good time? I'm so bored I'm going out of my mind. It's a crime." Yeah, it's a crime. But it's not too late. As someone once said, "to him who is joined to the living, there is hope." I don't think I'm alone in hoping for some good family TV.

2010 New Years' Revolution

Be a temple. Dis cussing. Boycott movies and TV with profanity and graphic sex. Vote with your wallet for good popular culture. Follow your calling, even if you don't know what it is. Change the channel, or find the Off button on your TV. Find great family friendly TV at http://www.classicswithoutcable.com/ and http://www.cartoonswithoutcable.com/. Listen to great music like Steve Scott (coming in 2010), Dann Gunn and ?

Cartoon Network sans cartoons

What would Cartoon Network be without cartoons? It would be Network. It's understandable they'd want to join the live action teen shows head to head with Disney and Nick. Unlike Toon Disney, they don't have another network to shove the cartoons over to (Toon Cartoon?) that they can position in the upper tiers of the cable bill.
But guess what? I wish the toons were back on Disney and Nick as well. I wish they'd make their own teen live action channel (Toon Teen?) and leave the cartoons where they are (were). That goes for Disney and Nick as well. And I don't like Har Har Thursday, despite the well-done period look of Flapjack, which conjures up Horatio Hornblower.
Whoever is running CN these days is, in my opinion, running it into the ground. It used to be an alternative, now it's as bad as everything you flipped to it to get away from. First, Adult Swim got way too extreme, unlike the relative innocence in which it was born, and then the rest followed.
It seems all CN cares about is bucks. Gone are the brave days when Ted Turner said he would run Cartoon Network at a loss until people wanted it. Which they did. Loyal fans got CN to where it is now. How sad if the shirts decide to change the channel.

Read an Interview with Steve Scott

Sitting in For Indian Town Gap pub listening to karaoke hooked to the wifi. My partner in crime is the uncle of the guitarist for Thousand Foot Krutch. We're talking about all things gospel rock, HM, theology, liturgy, our church backgrounds, and it's all going down easy with the east's best kept secret, the real reason to venture into Amish country: Yengling, the second oldest US brewery (the first is the Boston Beer Company), older than both is Canada's Molson (hail to the great white North), older than all, Britain's Bass, which also had the first registered trademark (the red triangle). We broke off from king and country, but we'll still drink your beer, your highness. Self on the upgraded to iLife 09/ OS X Leopard iBook G4, comrade on the very impressive Fujitsu LifeBook, with a built in sketchpad/ touchscreen. Army dawgs doing karaoke. Pretty much the perfect pub.

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -Ben Franklin.
"We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them." -G.K. Chesterton.

Celebrate St. Pat's Day

Check the right side for Celtic song samples to celebrate St. Pat's. See more at the Living Dog Store in "A Listening Dog" at alivingdog.com. We lift our Guiness to you.

Darwinists Boycott Louisiana

Follow this link for a great article on Darwinists boycotting Louisiana due to that state's allowing teachers to point out weaknesses in Darwinian theory without fear of recrimination. The irony is that they stormed off to have their convention in Salt Lake City instead. Really? Are Mormons Darwinists? I originally got this article in the Discovery Institute's excellent e-letterr, Nota Bene, but I don't know how to link to an e-mail. http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/03/an_open_letter_to_the_society_2.html